The creator of David Robiceaux and Billy Bob Holland returns to historical fiction in a work set in Civil War-era Louisiana.
James Lee Burke has reached that stage where his name has become synonymous with his most successful literary creation --- David Robiceaux. Burke's Robiceaux novels have now spawned imitators and fans eagerly await the next installment in the series. In some instances, these fans become bitterly disappointed when a work bearing Burke's name on the spine does not contain a Robiceaux story therein. The series is so engrossing and well done that it is easy to forget that Burke's earliest writing dealt with other, occasionally historical, plots. In WHITE DOVES AT MORNING, he returns to that genre.
WHITE DOVES AT MORNING is a stand-alone novel, thus giving Burke freedom with his characters that he does not entirely have with the Robiceaux books or the Billy Bob Holland novels. One reads WHITE DOVES AT MORNING with no expectations other than that there will be a well-told, engrossing story. Burke has taken this freedom and run with it and, in the process, has created what might well be his finest work to date.
WHITE DOVES AT MORNING is set primarily in rural Louisiana during the Civil War and early Reconstruction. The primary characters are, as we are told, on the inside front cover, ancestors of Burke, though it is not immediately clear how much of the tale told within is family lore and how much is torn from the whole cloth of Burke's imagination. There is in all probability a healthy mix of both. Despite the change in subject matter, Burke continues the theme that runs through the Robiceaux novels --- that the rich are evil and can only transcend their circumstance with a healthy dose of guilt. This worldview, alas, is wearing rapidly thin --- there is no inherent evil in wealth, any more than there is a particular inherent nobility in poverty --- and Burke's incessant dwelling on the premise almost distracts from the beauty of his writing. Similarly, his presentation of the cause of the Civil War --- that it was fought over the issue of slavery --- is worse than simplistic; it is simply incorrect. The magnitude and beauty of Burke's writing, however, is such that one can easily suspend disbelief when encountering these issues and appreciate the beauty of this work.
The beauty and contrast within WHITE DOVES AT MORNING lie primarily in its characters. Robert Perry and Willie Burke, despite their disparities of background and opinion, join the Confederate Army while not sacrificing their principles, as well as their commitment to Abigail Dowling, a Massachusetts abolitionist who had come to Louisiana several years previously to aid in the battle against yellow fever. Burke also forms a friendship, unlikely for that time and place, with Flower Jamison, a beautiful young slave who is owned by Ira Jamison, owner of Angola Plantation and, though he refuses to admit it, Flower's father. Burke secretly teaches Flower how to read and write, an act that places both of them in danger. Flower becomes the catalyst from which much of WHITE DOVES AT MORNING proceeds. She finds herself the object of desire of Rufus Adkins, the overseer of her father's plantation and a source of unspeakable evil. Adkins and Burke, cast together in combat during the Civil War, are uneasy comrades. They wear the same uniform, but are by no means on the same side.
It is this conflict, woven throughout WHITE DOVES AT MORNING, that is the ultimate manifestation of Burke's ability to present through implication the complexity of relationships against a backdrop of social and moral difficulty. There are also passages here which bring to mind some of the best work of Cormac McCarthy, particularly when the author describes the horror of battle and its physical and emotional aftermath. The end of the war, however, does not herald the end of the terror. Burke, Flower, and Dowling find themselves caught between the conquering army of the North and the dreaded night riders --- the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camellia of which Adkins, ever the lowest common denominator opportunist, is a member.
WHITE DOVES AT MORNING ultimately demonstrates the rippling effect that an act of bravery and simple kindness --- in this instance, Burke's instruction to Flower in reading and writing --- can have upon people over time. Fans of Robiceaux who eschew this work simply because their favorite Cajun detective is not its prominent feature will only cheat themselves. At the same time, those who are unfamiliar with Burke's work will find WHITE DOVES AT MORNING far more than an introduction to a new author. This work, in time, will perhaps become the most highly regarded of all of Burke's efforts.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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